delays

One Month to Go – Should we panic about Rio Olympics? Get real

When is it time to panic about the Olympics? It’s true, things are not pretty in Rio de Janeiro, even as the Olympic torch arrived Tuesday in Brazil, with three months until the opening ceremony of the Games.

There’s the raw sewage in Guanabara Bay, slated for sailing events. The doubts over whether the subway line connecting the Olympic venues will be finished in time. The horror of the collapse of a recently built $12 million seaside bike path (two dead, three injured), calling into question the integrity of the other structures the city has built for the Games — for which, by the way, ticket sales are still hovering at only about 62%.

But panic? Well, the Zika virus is spreading, with some delegations debuting “Zika-proof” uniforms.

The city’s notorious crime rate looms large, and Amnesty International has called attention to the death toll from police crackdowns in the favelas, or shantytowns.

All this while the country remains embroiled in economic recession, a corruption scandal and political drama, most notably impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.

But let’s pause a moment. It has become tradition to sound alarm bells in the months leading up to an Olympic Games. Before the last go-round, Sochi for example, cries of crisis came often:

“Inexcusable” Pan Am Stadium delays continue

The city has cancelled community events booked for its new $145 million stadium this month as construction — and damage repairs — continues on the long-delayed project.

City Pan Am committee chair Lloyd Ferguson said Thursday the 22,500 seat stadium is “very, very close” to being done, more than nine months after it was supposed to be completed.

Ferguson said a critical building inspection walk-through is scheduled for Monday and an occupancy permit could be granted within a couple of weeks.

Pan Am Stadium Chronology

But he added contractor Ontario Sports Solutions has also been busy fixing water damage caused by faulty water seals in the east stands on top of finishing touches to the new stadium.

Last summer, the beleaguered contractor also had to repair $25,000 in damages from a fire that broke out in a ventilation room just before the Labour Day Classic Ticat game.

Infrastructure Ontario and the contractor can’t hand over the stadium to the city until it achieves “substantial completion,” a contractual threshold that will also trigger more than $80 million in withheld building payments.

Four requests from the contractor for substantial completion have so far been rejected by IO’s independent certifier, according to city staff.

The ongoing delays have forced the city to cancel an unspecified number of community bookings for the stadium and May is currently on hold.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger called that “inexcusable.”

“We’ve been held up for how many months now?” he asked at the committee. “I want to have assurances we’re not going to continue to hold up … community events.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)